One Step Forward
by stingrae90
Summary: It is well known that small things can change the course of history. All for the want of a nail...the battle doesn't have to be lost.
1. The Final Confession

**A/N1**: My RK muse ran away for quite a long time. (Perhaps a reaction to a slew of AtLA bunnies that demanded far more attention than I was able to give anything in this fandom.) However, I've recently rediscovered my love of this manga and it inspired what follows. This is actually an idea that has languished on my desktop for some years now, but only recently got any sort of devoted attention. It won't be a story in the traditional tense, but neither is it going to be a collection of drabbles, though that is closer to the format I've chosen for this fic. I'll discuss that more later. For the moment, enjoy.

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><p>Chapter 1: The Final Confession<p>

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><p>For Himura Tomoe, the hardest part of the journey back to the small cabin she shared with her second love was keeping her brother from antagonizing her husband. Enishi still did not understand just what changes of heart she had undergone since her bitter departure from Edo a year before. When they had finally gained the relative safety of the farmhouse, she had helped Kenshin to a seat by the fire pit and set Enishi to the task of heating water to cleanse the many wounds the redhead had sustained during his fights, hoping having a task would calm her brother.<p>

It hadn't.

"But you're hurt, nee-san!" he had protested. "Your shoulder-!"

"-Is not as serious as my husband's wounds, Enishi. Now please, heat the water."

Her stern glance had been enough to quell him for the moment, and he had grudgingly started a fire to heat water for her. Tomoe knelt at her husband's side, worry stabbing at her heart. Ever since they had arrived at their farmhouse, Kenshin had been drifting noticeably in and out of consciousness.

"Husband," she whispered, brushing his bangs out of his face. "Husband, please, wake up. We must see to your wounds."

Blue eyes blinked at her and confusion crossed his face. "T-Tomoe…? Where are…?"

"We are home," she told him. "Please, stay with me. Your wounds need tending."

Kenshin's gaze drifted over her face, cataloging every breath and sigh that told him she was still alive. As she shifted to her heels in preparation for standing to retrieve the bandages, her shoulder twinged. Wincing, Tomoe crashed back to her knees. "Ahh!"

"Tomoe!"

"Nee-san!"

Shaking her head, Tomoe gave both of them a reassuring gaze, unable to manage a smile. "I…am fine. Is the water ready, Enishi?"

Her brother's angry black eyes snapped. "Nee-san, you need help! Let me-!"

"Enishi," she interrupted him firmly. "I told you. We must see to my husband's wounds first."

Any response Enishi might have tried was interrupted by a soft, pained voice. "Tomoe."

Turning back to Kenshin, Tomoe waited for him to speak again. His blue eyes were troubled as they fixed on her shoulder. Her sleeve had been torn and the cloth was ruined by the blood that had soaked into it from the wound beneath. Movement of any kind was painful and Tomoe had kept her arm as close to her body as she could, sometimes cradling it with her uninjured arm, hoping to stabilize it until it could be tended to.

"I hurt you," he whispered. Tomoe's gaze softened the slightest bit. She shook her head.

"You were protecting me, and you did not know I was so close to him." she whispered. "I do not blame you."

Kenshin shook his head. "I promised to protect you, to protect your happiness…" His gaze seemed far away, now, his awareness of her injury the only thing anchoring him to the present. "All I do is hurt those around me…"

Tomoe leaned forward and gently tipped her husband's face upwards with a gentle hand. Kenshin blinked at her unexpected nearness.

"You did protect me. You had been – you are – gravely injured. Do not blame yourself for a wound you could not have prevented. I made the choice to intervene in your fight, and I would willingly do so again. It will heal quickly enough." Tomoe sat back again, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. She had never been this forward with him before. Enishi's semi-subdued growling in the background brought her attention back to the other pressing matter that needed tending to. "Now, you will have to help me, husband," she went on. "I have no formal training with such extensive wounds as you have, and there is not a doctor skilled enough in Otsu to help."

Kenshin's expression smoothed into understanding and he nodded. Neither needed to say that Battousai couldn't afford to be treated by a doctor of unknown loyalties, even had one of sufficient skill been close enough. His blue eyes sought out Enishi.

"Your sister's shoulder needs to be seen to. There are fresh bandages by my herb basket. Will you bring them?"

Enishi looked torn between the desire to help his beloved sister and revulsion at doing anything Kenshin asked, but he turned to fetch the bandages all the same. Tomoe protested.

"Husband! Your wounds-"

"Aren't likely to kill me in the next ten minutes," he interrupted bluntly, gaze uncompromising. "Your shoulder needs to be seen to first." Seeing her faintly disapproving frown, he relented slightly, expression softening. "I hurt you, Tomoe, even while I tried to protect you." He ducked his head, abashed. "I've failed in that, at least let me do this right."

Tomoe couldn't hold her resolve in the face of that heart-broken, quiet plea. "…alright. But quickly, and you will tell Enishi how to bandage it. I do not want you to injure yourself further."

Compromise reached, the business of tending their wounds got underway.

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><p>It had taken a long time to treat all of their wounds. Enishi was the only one of the three with the full use of both of his hands, and Tomoe had had to coax him into helping with her husband's wounds. The short winter day had ended while they worked and the fire provided their only light.<p>

Silence held them all in its thrall for several long minutes after every wound had been seen to and the unused supplies put away.

"I don't understand." Enishi broke the uneasy silence with his plaintive complaint, finally able to stand the oppressive silence no longer. He glared at his sister's husband. "This is all _your_ fault!" He turned pleading eyes on his sister. "You wouldn't have gotten hurt if it hadn't been for him! Let's go home, please, nee-san?"

Tomoe shook her head, expression somber. "We cannot leave now, Enishi. My husband is in no condition to travel."

Enishi saw red. "Not with HIM!" he practically screamed. "He stole your happiness, nee-san! Why are you protecting him? Why did you stop tenchuu? He deserves to die for what he did and instead you just-"

"Enishi!" Tomoe exclaimed, half-shocked at her brother's words and half-petrified of Kenshin catching what he had implied. That her own beloved brother would use Kiyosato-san's death to support his argument… "That is enough! He hasn't done anything but protect me since I met him-"

"What does he mean? _I_ stole your happiness…?"

Tomoe and Enishi both jumped slightly, turning to stare at the red-haired hitokiri, meeting tired, suspicious blue eyes. Kenshin let his gaze drop to Enishi's. "I don't claim to understand why you dislike me so much, when I'd never even known you were alive before yesterday. I only met your sister roughly a year ago. So why…" Kenshin's eyes narrowed. "Why are you so convinced _I _was the one who stole your sister's happiness?"

Enishi was more than ready to enlighten the man he hated, but Tomoe's hand on his shoulder silenced him. Looking back up at her, he frowned. "Nee-san?" he asked. Tomoe's gaze was locked on the fire, avoiding the gazes of her brother and her husband.

"Enishi…this…this is my story to tell." Tomoe took a deep breath and lifted her head to lock gazes with her husband. "When I told you of how I came to Kyoto…I did not reveal everything."

Kenshin watched her silently, much as he had yesterday afternoon, and Tomoe felt her heart breaking. Surely there was no way he could forgive her for this.

"I came to Kyoto for more than one reason. I came to find out what had happened to my fiancé, and I came to-" her eyes closed for a brief moment and she had to force herself to open them once more. "I came to find his killer." Her husband's face was blank, giving away none of his thoughts. Ice creeping towards her heart, Tomoe continued. "I focused all of my anger and grief on finding his killer. On _hating_ his killer. I felt I would go insane if I did not."

Enishi shot a dark look at Kenshin, as if it were all his fault that his sister had suffered so much. Kenshin had a sinking suspicion that he _was _the reason she had lost her happiness once already, but he said nothing.

"Finding one man, in Kyoto, where all those who carry swords have killed at least one person…" Tomoe shook her head. "It is a hopeless task. I started drinking to dull my pain. I thought I would never find justice for my fiancé. And then, when I had given up hope, a man approached me. He recognized me from what Kiyosato-san had spoken of me, he said." Meeting her husband's flat gaze finally became too much for her. Tomoe looked away. "He told me that my fiancé had died trying to defend his commander, Shigekura Jubei-sama. He died trying to prevent...prevent his assassination by Himura Battousai."

Kenshin's sharp intake of breath pierced Tomoe through the heart. His blank expression had dissolved into shock and Enishi looked perversely pleased at her husband's pain. She closed her eyes and hung her head. Surely he couldn't forgive her for what she would say next, but she had to continue. He deserved to know why she had initially come to him. The only grace she could find in this situation was that Enishi seemed content to let her speak and destroy her husband's illusions about her on her own.

"He told me to get close to you; to find your weakness. That when I had ascertained what it was, I was to send a messenger I trusted to him, and we would bring justice to our causes." Tomoe felt tears threaten and knew her control was cracking, but she _could not_ break down as she had done yesterday. She had no right. "I did as he said. I looked for a weakness all through our early acquaintance. I studied you and I questioned you; not to get to know you, but to find a way to exploit a weakness I had convinced myself was just beyond my reach."

Tomoe swallowed hard and opened her eyes again, daring a quick look through her lashes at her husband's face. The blank mask had reappeared, though he sat tense. She had to look away again.

"But you were different in every way from what I had expected. I expected to find a cold-blooded murderer, a man so consumed by blood-lust that he didn't care for anyone." She shook her head slightly. "You were so different," she repeated. "You were awkward around me. You were protective of my reputation with the other men. You obviously did not enjoy killing, but you did so anyway, at Katsura-san's request. I could hardly decide what to think of you, but I found I could not hate you." Her one free hand smoothed some wrinkles out of her kimono. "Katsura-san spoke to me, once, of your role in this revolution he is leading. That you were the vanguard of madness, the "cruelest job of all". And the next day, you shoved me away before you could injure me - kill me - when I startled you awake. I believe that was when I truly decided not to send any type of message, whether I found your weakness or not. Whatever you were, whatever I was beginning to feel, I knew I could not betray you."

Enishi made a strangled noise. Tomoe glanced to the side, her expression sad as she nodded in acknowledgement of the pained shock in his gaze. "This is why I wanted you to return to Edo, Enishi," she said softly. "I did not want my only brother to suffer in this dangerous business because of my own mistakes." She took another deep breath and faced her husband once again, head bowed submissively. "I can make no atonement for my actions. I hoped to mitigate the trouble I had brought to you by misleading your enemies, giving them a false weakness. I hoped to protect you, to protect Enishi, by playing the part I had accepted whole-heartedly a year ago. Instead I became that weakness, despite my intentions." She bowed as low as she could manage with her shoulder and strove not to cry. "I am sorry."

Stunned silence reigned in their cabin.

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><p><strong>AN2:** Like I said above, this will be much closer to a collection of drabbles than a truly chaptered story. The next two or three chapters will continue this scene, but after that, we'll skip around to various points during their lives together. (Tomoe's survival changes SO MANY different things. XD) I'll probably continue this until I run out of ideas, or reach the point where I've caught them up to the Jinchuu arch of the manga. Cause after that, really, the changes will be pretty well established.

I've knocked the dust off of my RK muse and chased the vultures away from Fortunate Relapse. I'll need to make a few more editorial changes that didn't get made before my RK muse died, but ch. 4 will be up by the weekend. (No, seriously this time!)

And, just cause I'm STILL that excited, who else is hyped for the RK live action movie? Or the revamp of the anime? If anyone knows of a link where someone's translated the trailer for the movie, I'd love it if you'll share. I don't speak Japanese, and my sister says the narrator speaks too quickly for her to translate it for me. (Though, granted, just watching the trailer is squee-worthy all on it's own. Takeru Sato actually LOOKS like a RL version of Kenshin! I'm impressed with the make-up artists already.)


	2. Reflecting

**A/N1**: I found the neatest sketchpad/journal thing at Barnes and Noble the other day. It had a design on the front of a painting of one of the tsunamis that flattened one of Japan's smaller islands during its history. I find this immensely interesting because I'm a history buff and the picture makes much more sense to me than it did before my sister explained the significance of the design. (Me: So it's not just that some artist wanted to draw a freaking big wave? Sister: ...no. It's a traditional piece of art. . Me: Cool! I think I will get this one then! Sister: ...you're odd.) And apparently, it also makes it easier for me to write, for some reason. I don't think I've ever finished a chapter so quickly. Maybe the "traditionality" of writing something by hand instead of typing it on the computer? Who knows, but it works, apparently!

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><p>Chapter 2: Reflecting<p>

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><p>Kenshin stared blankly at the back of his wife's head, unable to fully comprehend what she had just told him. His wounds throbbed with every beat of his heart and while time and the fire's warmth had banished most of the lingering effects of the barriers, the redhead was still slightly numb. He could almost swear he still heard the faint ringing that had seemed near constant that morning and his vision would still blur at odd moments. Truthfully, the only sense he felt had been truly restored to him was the ability to read ki and even that seemed questionable now.<p>

Because if ti was truly restored, then the bitter regret in Tomoe's ki, and the shocked betrayal in Enishi's…then it meant his wife's story was true. And that was simply too much for him right now.

"Get up." Kenshin croaked. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Tomoe, get up. You shouldn't-" But if she had deceived him in the manner she had just detailed…but if she had, it was only because of the grief his own actions had caused her. "You are injured, and you're not used to having to ignore that pain." _He_ had caused her emotional pain; the grief that had led to betrayal. "Do not put yourself in such discomfort for my sake." Gritting his teeth, he rose to slightly unsteady feet. He spoke over Tomoe's quiet exclamation of concern. "I have to make sure we are secure here. There was one onmitsu who escaped. Stay here. Enishi, guard your sister."

Without waiting to see if the boy would argue with him, Kenshin retrieved his daisho and stalked out the door.

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><p>Tomoe felt a tear slide down her cheek and hurriedly wiped it away. She had known, in a carefully ignored part of her heart, that this happiness she had found with her husband could not last. Though she had not held any emotion but hatred for Himura <em>Battousai<em>, that had been before she had encountered the boy behind the terrifying legend. Before she had come to know the man he was slowly growing to be, despite every obstacle thrown in his way.

Before she had fallen in love with Himura _Kenshin_, the Ishin known as Battousai, the man who had killed her first love. She had forfeited the right to tears the moment she had agreed to marry him.

"Nee-san?" Enishi's voice was hesitant and half-way furious. "I don't understand. How…how can you love _him_? He killed your fiancé!"

Tomoe inclined her head, feeling another sort of grief tug at her heart. She had so wished to spare her little brother the pain of the consequences of her actions…her crimes.

"He did," she finally acknowledged her brother's accusation. "He is also the man who saved a woman he didn't know from two very drunk samurai, and later, when she followed him to express her thanks and saw instead a battle she should never have known about…" Tomoe's voice trailed off as she remembered that rain of blood and the odd hesitance she had sensed before she had fainted. She hadn't realized until the next day that the hesitance was odd because he should have killed her that night. She shook her head, nearly subconsciously, in remembered bafflement. "He is also the man who spared me, when his orders were to keep his identity a secret at all costs."

Enishi went pale. Her brother wasn't stupid. He could easily infer what she meant. Tomoe continued as he stared at her with confused and scared black eyes.

"He brought me to safety. He had the innkeeper – an elderly woman named Okami-san – clean me and dress me for bed. He came crashing down the stairs the next morning in something remarkably like panic, because he had awakened and saw the futon neatly put away and myself gone." Another shake of the head. "He ensured none of his fellow Ishin Shishi spoke badly of me or insinuated inappropriate things about my character. Enishi, I did not lie. Himura Kenshin was the opposite of everything I had believed him to be. Himura _Battousai_ may have killed Kiyosato-san, but it was not out of malice or a lust for blood. My husband may be an assassin, but he does not regard his job as anything glorious. Simply what has to be done, so his commander may advance the ideal they both believe in."

"But…but eh hurt you, Nee-san. He made you cry." In Enishi's mind, this was a crime that could never be forgiven. Tomoe sighed. She loved her brother, but she dearly withsed their mother had not died so soon after Enishi's birth. She had no idea how to teach her brother about forgiveness; especially not when she had only started to learn how to apply it herself. Her mother might have known how.

"So did Kiyosato-san, when he left," she settled on saying. "Enishi, there isn't an easy way to explain my feelings. They have changed so drastically, I don't even know where to start. But please, even if you still hate him, do not deliberately antagonize him. For me?"

Enishi shifted uncomfortably, but ultimately nodded. Tomoe inclined her head gratefully, managing to find a small smile for him. She carefully stood. "Will you help me prepare our meal, Enishi? My arm will make the task difficult."

Her brother started, having descended into one of his rare thoughtful moods after he had agreed not to antagonize her husband. He frowned at her shoulder and then nodded, something dark and almost frightened flashing through his eyes. Tomoe took silent note of it.

They worked with only occasional requests for an item or aid, and Tomoe eventually laid her hand on her brother's shoulder, squeezing gently, causing unseen tension to leak out of his frame and he gave her a grateful smile.

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><p>Enishi was far from sure he was happy that the man who had brought his sister happiness again was the same one who had taken it in the first place. He would have much rathered that jinchuu had succeeded and he and his sister could go home without worrying about that murderer. But jinchuu had failed anf for some reason Nee-san was <em>in love<em> with him. So he would tolerate the redhaired man, but _only_ until Nee-san came to her senses.

In the meantime, he now had to find a hitokiri who obviously didn't want to be anywhere near either Yukishiro sibling _and_ convince him to come inside and eat before he froze to death.

Enishi growled as he stomped around the corner of the farmhouse, hoping without much confidence that…_Himura_ hadn't just left them to be slaughtered by whichever faction was most furious and got to them first. So he stumbled to a bewildered halt when he saw the hitokiri perched on a brushed clear pile of firewood, sword propped against his shoulder, apparently oblivious to the biting cold. The young boy scowled and stomped around the pile to plant himself firmly in the man's line of sight.

"If you freeze to death because you're too stupid to come inside, _I_ won't care, but Nee-san would cry," he bluntly stated.

Distant blue eyes blinked and focused on him with faint surprise. "…Enishi," the hitokiri acknowledged after a pause. Enishi had to forcefully remind himself that this was his Nee-san's beloved to prevent himself from yelling at the idiot.

"Nee-san and I made supper," he finally gritted out, as obviously appeals to common sense were useless. "Aren't you hungry?"

Himura looked away, no expression that Enishi could interpret on his face. "Then you both should eat," he stated, ignoring the question. "It's been a long day."

This time Enishi couldn't hold back the growl. "Nee-san wants you to come inside before you freeze to death," he repeated, trembling with anger. "Do you even _care_ that she risked her life to save _you? _That she mad a meal for you when it's so painful for her to move her arm? She's done everything for you and you don't even seem to realize that _you _stole her happiness in the first place! You-!"

"What makes you think I don't care?" The flat menace in the question made Enishi take a hesitant step back and close his mouth. This man bore no resemblance to the one who had let him get away with biting him yesterday. Blue eyes flecked with gold pinned him to the spot, though the hitokiri had not moved. "What makes you think I _don't_ realize that _I_ killed her fiancé?" One hand rose and ripped off the bandage on his left cheek, revealing two cuts. One long since healed and the other far newer - the result of his sister's dagger as it had flown from her hand when she had been struck by her husband's blade. It had started to bleed again.

"Hey-!" Enishi squawked. Nee-san would be upset that the idiot had reopened one of his wounds. Himura overrode his protest, gesturing at the older mark, oblivious or simply uncaring of the blood running down his face.

"Do you know where I got this scar?" He didn't wait for an answer and Enishi didn't have one anyway. "I got it the night I assassinated Shigekura Jubei, from the youngest of his guards. A young man who not only managed to strike me, but withstood _three_ of my attacks he had such a great will to live!"

Enishi watched in unabashed astonishment as the cold fury ebbed into bitter recrimination. _This_ was the man the Yoshinobu had been so cautious of? A man apparently much more torn up by the murder of a bodyguard than any of his other crimes?

"I didn't even know his name." Himura laughed humorlessly. "And now, for Tomoe's dagger to strike me – to scar me – by accident so _perfectly_ across the scar left by her fiancé." His hand tightened on the sheath of his sword, no longer aware of the boy in front of him, solely focused on his own inner turmoil. "I killed him. I killed her happiness."

The man nearly broken by the knowledge of what he had done to one woman. _This_ was the fearsome Battousai? If he hadn't seen just how dangerous the man could be, in the forest that morning, Enishi wouldn't have believed it.

Frowning, he looked around the yard. He really could care less if the idiot died out here, but he couldn't just _let_ it happen, cause that would make Nee-san cry. And since HImura _hadn't_ actually abandoned them like he had initially thought…

Well, Enishi didn't know what to think of that – or of Himura's odd behavior – but if he was going to get a chance to decide how he felt, the idiot had to _come inside before he froze to death._

"Ha," he breathed as he spotted a discarded broom leaning against the farmhouse. Ensihi had seen that morning how deadly the man in front of him could be, even injured and unsure of his surroundings. He _wasn't_ stupid enough to poke a man that dangerous without something in between them. Enishi could hardly believe he'd gotten away with biting the man yesterday. Holding the broom where the handle was joined to the brisltes, Enishi leveled his impromptu poker at his unwanted brother-in-law. He carefully aimed at one of the only unbandaged areas on the man – his left leg – and jabbed him with the broom handle.

The reaction he got was somewhat anticlimactic.

Himura let out a startled yelp and made as if to unseath his sword – which Enishi had been expecting. He had already ducked down just in case. But his caution proved unnecessary, as the stack of firewood started to shift under the sudden movements and Himura's weakened body proved unequal to the task of steadying himself.

The hitokiri toppled backwards into the snow and Enishi was only vaguely impressed he hadn't lost the sword as he fell. No, what occupied Enishi's mind was one sentiment. A statement he could not hold back in his dumbfounded shock.

"Seriously? Is _that_ as good as your balance gets? I poke you _once_ and you-"

At this point, two things happened. Enishi's mind finally succeeded in getting his mouth to shut up and Himura regained his feet, snow stuck in his hair and melting into his clothing, sword held almost as an afterthought at his side, seeming as if he didn't know if he should be furious or embarrassed. His eyes locked on the broom handle in Enishi's hands and his expression settled for confused.

"You hit me with a broom handle?"

Enishi fought not to flush in embarrassment, griping his improvised poker even more firmly. "I didn't think Nee-san would have liked it if I bit you again." He scowled. "And I've patched you up enough today. I _don't_ want to do it _again._" Pointedly gesturing at his own cheek, he shifted his scowl into a glare. "You do enough damage to yourself already."

Himura raised a hand to his cheek reflexively and seemed surprised at the blood that came away on his fingertips. Enishi plowed on before he could fall back into that odd, bitter mood again.

"Food?" he reminded the hitokiri pointedly. Himura's blue eyes – now devoid of the gold flecks – skipped from his hand to Enishi's scowling face to the farmhouse. Finally - _finally –_ he moved to enter it for the first time since he had stalked out of it, sheathing his sword as he went. Enishi rolled his eyes and followed, keeping the broom in hand.

Maybe he could use it to knock sense into the redhead if he said anything to make Nee-san cry again.

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><p><strong>AN2: **Enishi is...oddly fun to write. I hadn't expected that. I do know where I expect him to end up, development-wise, but he is very much a brat when he's first introduced to Kenshin. And aside from being very childish in some of his views - well, he _is_ ten - it's very hard to argue with his dislike of Kenshin. He did kill someone important to Tomoe and caused her a lot of grief and pain. To Enishi - to any child who idolized an older sibling/mother figure - this is going to be a nearly unforgivable crime.

Hope you enjoyed!


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